Biz Buzz: A ballfield named Bart

Indiana University's new baseball field, Bart Kaufman Field.

A half century after his playing days at Indiana University ended, Bart Kaufman planned a return to Bloomington before this weekend to dedicate a new baseball field that bears his name.

Kaufman, chairman and CEO of Kaufman Financial Corp. in Carmel, made a $2.5 million donation to help build the new synthetic-turfed ballfield now known as Bart Kaufman Field.

Kaufman was slated to throw the first pitch before a Hoosiers-Michigan game on Friday. Ten teammates from the IU teams Kaufman played for from 1960-62 were set to be on hand. And former Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Carl Erskine, a friend and mentor of Kaufman's, was penciled in to play the national anthem on a harmonica.

"It should be a wonderful day," Kaufman said last week before the game.

- Jeff Swiatek

Lilly's tweets
are all business

Eli Lilly and Co. has turned to social media to talk to journalists.

The Indianapolis drug maker said earlier this month it launched an @LillyPad_Media Twitter handle for journalists, along with a new Facebook presence under the same name.

The new digital PR platform is an attempt "to enhance our conversations with media who cover the biopharmaceutical industry," Lilly said.

Judging from the early tweets, @LillyPad_Media is all business, with nary a comment about the daily blue-plate special in the Lilly cafeteria or musings from Senior Director of Global Corporate Communications Ed Sagebiel about the early-season performance of his beloved Cincinnati Reds.

- Jeff Swiatek

Company makes its entrance in style

A door is a door is a door. Or not.

The Downtown architectural firm Schmidt Associates decided it doesn't make sense for its front door to open onto Vermont Street, so it's relocating the main entry around the corner to face Massachusetts Avenue.

"When we first bought the Wil-Fra-Mar and associated buildings in 1986, Mass Ave. was not the trendy place it is today," company CEO Wayne Schmidt said. "Back then it was a good business decision to face Vermont Street. Now, 27 years later with the renaissance of retail, residential and restaurants and entertainment along Mass Ave., it's time to turn our main entrance around and face the bustling Mass Ave. side."

The new lighted, faux-marble entrance will be ready in mid-May.

- Jeff Swiatek

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Biz Buzz: A ballfield named Bart

A half century after his playing days at Indiana University ended, Bart Kaufman planned a return to Bloomington before this weekend to dedicate a new baseball field that bears his name.